Matsui mania, day two, plus lineup stuff

There was great anticipation for Hideki Matsui’s arrival in the A’s clubhouse today, and when he did walk in, the atmosphere was slightly awkward initially: Dozens of media and players all staring at Matsui, who came to a stop and looked startled.

There was a smattering of applause, and then Matsui was directed to his locker – where the 6-foot Godzilla dressed in an A’s uniform was waiting. Matsui threw back his head and laughed, breaking some tension, and then the whole thing broke up. Back to business.

It was an unusual scene, overall. Hushed. Willie Eyre, sitting against the wall, said, “Well, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

In the dugout 30 minutes later, manager Bob Geren faced his biggest crowd of the spring, with 30 or more Japanese reporters and photographers. It was such a big group, that as we waited for Geren to come out, various players (Landon Powell, Andrew Bailey) stopped to pretend they were conducting a press conference.

After Geren finished his session, all the Japanese media moved down the dugout for another scrum: to listen to the translation of Geren’s words. I wonder if his asides and jokes are part of that – he

sometimes launches into tangents about his dog, Hank Geren (say it aloud), or about hockey. Today, it was classic cars.

Matsui hasn’t emerged from the clubhouse, and everyone else is wrapping up their work for the day because of the miserable wet, cold weather.

I asked Geren a bit about the lineup and if he’s decided where exactly Matsui will hit, and he said it depends on if Daric Barton remains up near the top (Crisp, Barton, DeJesus, Willingham, Matsui) or not (Matsui then batting cleanup). He usually doesn’t like having two left-handed hitters such as Barton and DeJesus hitting back-to-back up top, but he noted that Barton hits lefties well, sometimes better than right-handers.

I asked about Matsui getting some time in the outfield and while it sounds as if that hasn’t been entirely decided, Geren said it might be good for Matsui to keep those skills fresh, presumably for interleague play. My guess is that it will depend on how Matsui’s knees are feeling.

Tomorrow will be the first full-squad workout at Papago Park. I’ll try to get an exact time and add it here later.

UPDATE: If you hadn’t already seen it on my Twitter feed, the A’s will stretch tomorrow at 9:45 at the minor-league complex and hitters will take batting practice off pitchers starting at about 11:40 a.m. Trevor Cahill, Bobby Cramer, Tyson Ross, Josh Outman, Brad Ziegler, Joey Devine, Danny Farquhar will be throwing.